ABSTRACT
Trade liberalization can follow various tracks—unilateral, bilateral, regional, and multilateral. There is a growing consensus among a large segment of stakeholders that multilateral trade liberalization is the first best option, not least because of the reciprocity and multilateralization of concessions (so-called most-favored-nation principle), where each country has an equal chance of gaining from the trade liberalization initiatives of other countries. The progress of the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the past ten years clearly indicates that trade liberalization under the multilateral regime is at best uncertain and slow.
